LOGINFootsteps silent, the cold stone bit into my soles as I moved through Vareth Mansion's underground. A door waited, sealed tight until now, untouched since last winter. My path followed the chill rising from the floor, guiding me forward without sound.Last night, Leon wasn’t watching closely. My silence had worn on him, irritation crept in, his attention slipped, so I took the silver key from inside his study.The iron door groaned as I shoved it wide. At the room's heart rose a dark slab of stone, ringed by golden markings, old Targarion script etched deep. Here everything began. The machine draining the land’s strength for half a year sat silent now.Close up, I moved, breath tight as the beat inside me slammed against bone. That ring Leon gave when we said vows, sitting heavy on my hand, started pulsing now, wrong somehow. Not its normal blue anymore, but lit with a sharp violet burn that stung just to see."You want to show me something, don't you?" I whispered to the sapphire.A
Leon flinched back as if I had slapped him. His face paled, and fear appeared in his eyes—not fear of death, but fear that the truth he had been hiding had finally exploded."Rhea... have you seen the map?" his voice was weak, almost a whisper."I didn't just look at the map, Mr. Vareth. I looked at every death toll that correlated with the energy surge in your office. I've only been here a year, and I already know I'm sharing a bed with the one who destroyed my own family."I grabbed my briefcase, walked to the door, and flung it open. "Good night. I hope you sleep soundly on a bed built from the souls of the Valerian clan."I left him there, frozen in the middle of my room, which now felt like a prison to him. I walked out of the office with my head held high, letting this silence be my first weapon in destroying his sanity.~o0O0o~This place, once called home, now sat heavy, as if built inside some beast's gut where years disappeared. Each wooden panel, each glass-heavy light fixt
"Did he know?" My voice trembled. "Did he know at that moment that the energy was coming from us?"Silas was silent for a moment, twirling the glass bottle on his desk. "Paul lied to him. Paul said it was energy from the Earth's dormant core. But Leon... he was too smart to be suspicious. He saw the graph of the spike, he saw the coordinates pointing north. He chose to turn a blind eye because he was too hungry for power.""He chose not to know," I corrected, my voice bitter. "That's the same as doing it on purpose.""Now you know the truth, Luna," Silas grinned. "Your husband is a predator who devoured your family to become Alpha. And now, he's trying to drain the rest from you through this marriage."Shaky beneath me, my legs barely held. A second collapse, and the ground gave way again. Gratitude had bloomed when Leon pulled me back from nothing, but now I saw it clearly. The threat wore his face all along. One moment, he cuts; the next, he hands you a bandage.Fine work, Silas," I
I stared at him with tears welling up in my eyes. "That target area is my home! You're not sending energy there, Leon. You're implanting your ritual magnetic poles so you can attract our souls like a magnet attracts iron filings! You're using your company's facilities to carry out a remote massacre!"Leon took a step back, his face pale in the dim fluorescent light. "I didn't know it would kill them, Rhea! I was told it was pure earth energy, unowned energy! I needed that power to stabilize our clan, which was on the verge of collapse from the Rogues' attack!""Unowned energy?!" I laughed hysterically, a laugh filled with pain. "That was my mother's life! That was the life energy of the children of my clan! You sucked us dry for seven months, Leon! You harvested us like wheat for your ambition to become the undefeated Alpha!""Rhea, listen to me, ""No! I did the math, Leon," I slammed my fist on the table, sending documents flying. "The cost spike in the final month... that was when
"I made many mistakes in my youth, Rhea," he said in a deep voice. "I tried many ways to prove myself to my father. But it had nothing to do with you or your clan."Strange, right? Up I got, knees unsteady, yet staying on my feet somehow. Over to the dresser, hand closing around the sapphire ring left behind last night. That gem held a dim light, like the vision had seeped into it somehow. If truth stands, then how come your people’s mark lit up Valerian skies in that dream while we burned? Each thud of your pulse - why did it sound just like our end coming?Leon stood up from the bed and approached me slowly, trying to calm my nerves. "Dreams can deceive you, Rhea. Past trauma can distort the facts. It was Paul who carried out the sabotage, not me. I wasn't even in the North when it happened.""You weren't physically there, Leon," I said, staring straight into his now troubled golden eyes. "But your energy was there. Your ritual reached all the way to the Northern border. You drew on
Leon’s POV"Now!" Rhea shouted.Forward I surged, muscles burning, while Rhea wrapped us in shimmering force. A single strike, then another, each lit by electric blue that locked our enemy in place. The names they gave us meant nothing now. Storms don’t answer to titles.Out near the edge of things, we slipped free just as planned. Not by luck, Rhea knew where to go because she’d wandered that warehouse before, poking into corners when no one was looking. Her memory pulled us toward a door tucked behind crates nobody had moved in years.Fogging the dark, our breathing came fast once we reached the edge of the factory lot. Straight off, I moved her behind the broad stone barrier. Cold snapped at our skin, each gasp visible, tangled together in the dim chill.My fingers stayed locked around hers, eyes fixed on our joined hands. Not until the glow of the blue stone began to fade did I feel it, heat spreading behind my ribs. That warmth lingered long after the sparkle had gone.That momen
Leon’s POV“Tomorrow's wedding - that’s probably why,” Rhea said. Like she could see right through me, her words dropped flat, careless almost.A shot went off when my finger moved. Across the lightening sky, a bird passed through fading blue. My focus shifted just before the moment it happened.It
Leon's POVThe watch on my wrist already showed five in the afternoon, and since three hours ago, my focus on the clan alliance documents had been shattered.The door to Rhea’s room stood open, empty. Outside, the garden held no sign of her either, nor did the kitchen where Shelen moved between cou
Fanned across the floor, every dress, each shoe, all of it waits inside my room. Piled neatly by color, accessories lined up like quiet promises. Nothing missing, everything placed just right where the light hits in the morning.Smith is still here, sitting back on the velvet sofa across from me. H
Rhea's POV"Mr. Leon usually shoots and hunts whenever he's stressed or has a lot on his mind," Helen replied, straightening the tablecloth. "It's probably because your wedding is tomorrow. He needs an outlet for his tension."I was speechless. Could Leon Vareth, the majestic and untouchable Alpha,







